As we reported recently, Top Chef runner-up and beloved Frederick restaurant owner Bryan Voltaggio is opening his first Baltimore-area fine dining establishment. (Too bad it’s in Power Plant Live – but that’s a discussion for another time.) The Baltimore Business Journal recently sat down with Voltaggio to ask why he finally decided to expand to Baltimore, and his answer made us happy: When it comes to restaurants, DC is over; Baltimore is where it’s at.
Okay, so what he actually said was this: “D.C. is crazy — it’s probably one of the fastest-growing restaurant cities in the country. It seems like there’s a restaurant opening every day. So that’s getting pretty saturated. There’s a ton of culinary history there, there’s a lot of chefs doing great things there. There’s a lot of room to grow the culinary scene. I think that the city of Baltimore and also surrounding areas, they’re looking for more options.”

So, yes, we can still be jealous of DC’s ridiculous array of dining options — but we should also rest secure that Baltimore is on the up-and-up.